Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 28, 2005 | | Summary | Araki shines brilliant once more!!! | Content
 | Filmmaker/Artist Araki has matured with each film. I grew up with his earlier films and relished in the gory angst filled bratiness once prevelant for humor/shock sake circa 1993-1997. When Splendor was released I no longer felt like the teens in The doom Gen/ Nowhere (yet my life still feels like a greg araki movie - which i feel is a good thing overall) Splendor was refreshing and often misunderstood (by the angst loving teens of today) yet still had all the qualities of Araki i ve grown to love. I was able to view Mysterious alone which i feel made it all the more powerful. Araki does not disappoint. He won me when Slowdive played distantly over the opening credits - always a fan of his divine soundtracks loaded with songs from the splendid shoegazer movement of the early 90's. Disturbing subject matter. Of course pedophilia and rape are never fun to discuss with grandma, but Araki does so with finesse and such empathy. Watching the sexual encounters of hustler life are filled with humor (maybe more so /a lot so for gay men) and reality i felt as if i'd had the encounter or known the character from my own growing up sexual quirkiness/innocence turned cold fast. A few scenes very blunt and of course disturbing but this is what happens in the real world...maybe not to everyone...but of course easier for society/mainstream to avoid the topic or just plain ignore crime and/or violence. This film is very moving...tears filled my eyes during the final scenes (a first during an Araki film) and tastefully handled despite subject matter that obviously is not for everyone. Araki appears to be floating upward with each subsequent film release and standing among the fog filled arena of his shoegazer film heaven. I enjoy going along for the ride. I was very excited to see this film prior to release, and i must say that it blew me away! Just for the record...constantly being compared to L.I.E. due to subject matter...Skin has much more style and character! I have to admit that I found it refreshing to have such heavy difficult subject matter comparable to The Living End '93, although this time done with compassion. while The Living End reaches for stars in fantasy Mysterious Skin touches heaven via blissful artisty of reality!!!! Superb!!!! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 24, 2005 | | Summary | GOOD MOVIE WITH DIFFICULT SUBJECT | Content
| any movie that deals with pedophilia can be hard to swallow. this movie is no exception, but i think that in this case the movie does not shy away from the truth and the reality of what happens to boys when this type of incident occurs. there is on boy that goes on to become a hustler and sees his body as something he barters for money and attention. he is empty and seems to be a drifting person with no soul. on the flip side there is another young man who has part of a shattered past and he is trying to piece it back togethter, but for him he really does not know where to start picking up all the pieces. naturally, these two share a link to each other's past. there are two very different perspectives shown in the movie on being the life of a hustler and the dangers it poses to one who is young, impressionable, and vulnerable. the other is a perspective of reaching and trying to find what is missing in life and being open to all possibilities. the best part of the movie as usual comes at the end when the two come together and all is revealed. for one it is an owning up to what was done in the past, while for the other it is an explanation and revelation to his past. it is like catharsis for both of them and is a journey well worth taking. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 07, 2005 | | Summary | Compelling, disturbing, not your feel good movie. | Content
| I have just come from seeing this movie this evening, not an hour ago. Having never read the book, I had no idea what I was out for. This has to be one of the most disturbing movies I have seen since L.I.E. (even moreso). With it's touchy subject matter, I was amazed at the complexity, of the story. Joseph Gordon-Levitt surpassed any acting that I have seen in a gay movie, ever! I was so blown away. Some of the scenes left me squirming in my seat and laughing nervously as the movie progressed. The underlying humor of some scenes almost passed so quickly that you'd almost think you'd missed something.
The subject of child molestation and rape, while disturbing, was handled in such an amazing fashion, that I felt compelled to pipe in my two cents worth. I don't think this will ever hit the mainstream gay community, like some other recent gay movies, but it's worth the time. But, now, I will never be able to eat Fruit Loops again. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 27, 2005 | | Summary | Don't bring your mom... | Content
| I mistakenly did. I wasn't aware that it was a Gregg Araki movie, otherwise, that wouldn't have happened. Luckily, she said that it "broadened her horizons."
This is a story about two characters who are not only different, but they also have two very dissimilar ideas about an experience that was shared between them.
The summer when they were 8 years old, something happened to each of them that would change their lives and the way they view it, forever.
After they have grown up, Neil leads a life where he is a john finding clients in a park and Brady becomes obsessed with aliens and abductions. Their paths are so diverse, but eventually come back together as one strives to find out what really happened to him on one fateful night.
I found this film to make me feel very uncomfortable, as it would be expected. The subject matter was difficult to take and I felt such empathy for the characters. I especially enjoyed the acting of boy who plays Neil, he was very believeable in a difficult role.
It's hard to say much else about the film, for I'd rather not give the story away.
Well acted and heart-wrenching. Recommended. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 22, 2005 | | Summary | The Favorite | Content
| The devastating, far-reaching effects of child abuse are microscopically examined in Gregg Araki's sensitive, well-produced and beautifully acted "Mysterious Skin."
Araki has been making films for a number of years and his previous efforts ("The Living End," "The Doom Generation" to name a couple) have been high on style but short on technical finesse. But with "Mysterious Skin," Araki comes into his own artistically: the film is a dynamo of expressive, persuasive acting and top shelf production values. Gone is the jerky, amateurish camera work and editing but remaining is Araki's sensitive worldview and just out-of-kilter morality.
There is no doubt here in which court Araki's allegiance and sympathy lays but he's enough of an artist and straight-shooter to show us both sides of this story: child molester Coach (Bill Sage) is presented, not as a monster (i.e. John Harrigan in a similarly themed "L.I.E") but as a nice guy. Despite the morally corrupt nature of his deeds,I found myself liking Coach.And this in a nutshell is the genius of this film and in Araki's now well-honed talent. Araki is taking big chances in his choice to go there with Coach but it is a brave and honest, though in many ways reckless, choice nonetheless.
John Gordon Levitt makes a major splash in this film. His Neil is morally lazy and a slacker and time and time again, he sets himself up as an emotional target to be used and abused by older men. He recalls his "times" with Coach fondly: "I was his favorite," he pathetically says several times in this film. However misguided, he is on a continual search to find the warmth and caring he felt with Coach.
On the other hand, Neil is very sensitive and thoughtful with his friends and with his mother (a still-sexy and beautiful Elizabeth Shue) and when another of Coach's victims, Brian (Brady Corbet) comes to him looking for answers, Neil patiently and kindly tells Brian all he wants to know.
"Mysterious Skin" is likely to offend a lot of people what with it's human and kind portrayal of an abuser but Araki cannot be faulted for presenting the whole story: he shows us, let's remember...he does not tell us. He leaves it to us to draw our own conclusions. |
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